1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to conducting a financial transaction on-line and in particular to conducting financial transactions using free-form entries to select desired actions.
2. Related Art
During a typical payment process flow, the user may be asked to authorize a payment or transmission before the transaction can be completed. Authorization may include the user selecting a specific button or link, such as “Pay Now,” “Confirm,” “Send,” “Purchase,” “Buy,” etc. The user may also have the option of selecting a specific button or link to perform other actions, such as cancel the transaction (e.g., “Cancel”), continue shopping (e.g., “Continue”), save to cart or account (e.g., “Save”), etc. By selecting such buttons or links, which may be done by clicking or tapping, the desired information is conveyed to the recipient, typically a payment provider or merchant in a purchase transaction.
However, requiring the user to select a specific button can be inconvenient because the user has to look for, find, and select the button on the screen. This can be problematic with small screens, small buttons, and mobile devices in situations when the user or device is moving or non-stationary. As a result, the user may select the wrong button or spend extra time and effort to select the desired button. All this leads can lead to frustration by the user, cancellation of a purchase transaction, either intentional or inadvertent, hesitancy to engage in a future transaction, and other consequences that may be undesirable for the merchant, user, or payment provider.
In addition, simple selection of the buttons is a relatively mundane task, which while needed, may not be much fun for the user.
Therefore, a need exists for ways in which a user can make selections on a device that overcomes the disadvantages mentioned above.